Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Big shifts in the Hockey Universe

These are depressing times...

Canada loses Bronze to the Finns, and the Swedes win gold at the World Championships. What happened to the gold old days when the Swedes couldn't win at medal at any tournament? Now, they have double gold >:(

The Vancouver Giants lose their first two games of the Memorial Cup tournament. The refs, unfortunately, don't seem to like the Giants' rough physical WHL style of hockey. If you so much a touch a guy in this tournament, they call a penalty.

I pick the Ducks to win in six, and now they are down 2-0 and those damn Oilers fans are partying it up. Even when the Ducks severely outplay the Oilers, Damn Dwayne Roloson, as he has this entire playoff season, comes to the Rescue 911.

The Slovaks, end up sucking like always *teardrop*. It's been too many years since the Slovaks have won a medal at a major tournament, and with the way hockey development is going in that country, the drought may continue for another decade.

With this in mind, I decided to do something to change the winds of destiny.

I shaved my playoff beard.

That’s right, because my facial hair holds the balance of power in the hockey universe. Right after I shaved, Carolina evened up their series with Buffalo, so I know that at least one team I want to win benefited from a Mach III treatment.

Oh, I still have the moustache going, so I haven't completed chickened out. I'm going for something along the Bill Houlder route.Now, THAT'S a moustache, bitches!

Now that I've rid myself of some hair, will Samson(ov) and the Oilers lose all of their mystical mojo? Muhahahahaha!

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David over at Hockey Analysis is in shock and awe over the Tampa Bay Lightning giving Brad Richards enough money to use a toilet paper for the rest of his life with enough left over to buy 14 million bags of Cheesy Poofs

Am I reading this right? Did Brad Richards really sign a 5 year contract that will pay him $7.8 million per year? Is the Tampa Bay management insane? It appears the answer to all of those questions is yes. How sad for Tampa Bay Lightning fans.

Here is the problem. Richards will make $7.8 million a season. Martin St. Louis will make 5.25 million a season. And Vincent Lecavalier will make 6.875 million per season. Combined those 3 guys will make nearly $20 million dollars, or just over half of this past seasons salary cap.

I can see the justification for giving Brad Richards that much salary, considering he is more valuable to the Lightning and has performed better than the other two for the past few seasons. If I had to pick one of the three, I'd take Richards first every time. St. Louis is older and not as consistently productive, while Lecavalier is rather atrocious defensively.

The problem, as mentioned, is that the Lightning are dangerously entering the old Larry Pleau danger zone and giving a huge chunk of their payroll to just a few players. How can the Lightning acquire quality depth when they spend so much on just 3 players? The Lightning aren't flush with quality prospects in their system, and the lack of depth was apparent this season as they barely squeaked into the playoffs. The Lightning could easily end up like the Blues in the next few years...

If league revenues climb at a 7% annual pace, by 2010-11 the individual player cap will be up 50% to $11.7 million.

The trinity of Richards/St. Louis/Lecavalier cost the team about 41% of the salary cap this year. If you buy into the revenue projection, the figure will rise to 48% next year and be back to 41% by the 2008-09 season.

After than, it just gets silly: in the last two years of the CBA, the Bolts will use just 37% and 35% of the cap to pay three players who are collectively worth close to 60%.

Funny how I came across this while looking to see how old Bill was. I haven't seen him since he and his wife broke it off. He has a few kids actually, a boy and two girls if my memory serves me correctly. I could be wrong about the two girls though. I can just remember the one girl, she kept asking me to watch her jump rope. He does live in North Bay and the last thing I heard was that he was considering going back to school. Oh yeah and the 'stache went the way of the dodo, but I was younger when I saw him with it so I thought it was hot.

Although this link seems fairly old to date, I thought I may fill in a few blanks about Bill Houlder. He is doing extremely well in North Bay, ON. He is now currently attending the last few months of his teaching degree. He always knew that he was capable of being --whatever he set his mind to. He always wanted to teach, So he now can. Great guy, great dad, (2 wonderful babes, a boy, and a girl) And after a lot of hard work, he's livin in "Gods Country". We all luv ya, Marcy, Chloe and Dee.xxoo